Antiracism and the current moment

The most potent forms of racism within the West today arise from the international configuration of authoritarian populist and fascist politicians and the movements that support them. Their forms of racism have united distinct local events and contexts into a broader international synthesis about migration, crime, sexual violence, national abasement, civilizational decline and racial extinction. The Western far-right has developed racial projects that seek to radically transform Western societies along many social, political and cultural dimensions. Key themes within contemporary racism are drawn out in the article, including its civilizational and natalist forms, the significance of Europe and its alleged degradation, the centrality of gender for racist mobilisations and the complications provoked by ethnic diversity in the far-right. The formidable challenges for antiracism are elicited in the article, including limitations to “identitarian”, “decolonial” and “communal” antiracism. The conclusion considers general directions that contemporary antiracism might take.